CASE CONTRADICTION

Attorney for officer accused of killing Antwon Rose II files new account of earlier attack

Drive-by shooting victim implicates Antwon Rose II.

One of the victims of a drive-by shooting in June that occurred minutes before an East Pittsburgh police officer shot 17-year-old Antwon Rose II told police in January that it was Antwon who shot him, and it was Antwon who had a “beef” with him.

“The beef was between me and him, that car came by, he shot me, I ran to the store,” William Ross told a Pennsylvania State Police trooper Jan. 16, according to a police report. “I didn’t report it. Five minutes later, he was dead.”

That statement was included in a defense motion filed Friday on behalf of former East Pittsburgh police officer Michael Rosfeld, who is charged with homicide in Antwon’s death. It contradicts what investigators say — that a man with Antwon was the shooter.

Jury selection in Mr. Rosfeld’s case is scheduled to begin March 12 in Harrisburg. The Dauphin County jurors will be bused to Pittsburgh.

Even though Ross, 20, told Trooper James Monkelis that Antwon was the shooter in the driveby just before 8:30 p.m. June 19 at Fa’s Market on Jones Avenue in North Braddock, the Allegheny County district attorney’s office has said the shots were actually fired by Zaijuan Hester, who is charged in the case.

“There’s absolute, physical, objective, video-verified evidence that shows that that police report is 100 percent false, and the defense would absolutely, positively have that evidence in their possession,” said attorney Fred Rabner, who is representing Antwon’s family in a lawsuit against Mr. Rosfeld. “Secondly, what happened prior to the car stop is wholly irrelevant to any issue whatsoever in the criminal matter.”

Investigators said video from the scene shows the shots were fired from the passenger-side back seat of the gold Chevy Cruze used in the drive-by. Hester, they said, was in the back seat, while Antwon was in the front passenger seat.

The video shows that the front passenger window was closed at

the time of the drive-by.

But there is evidence that Antwon had gunshot residue on his hands, and that a stolen gun was found beneath the front passenger seat of the car. He also had an empty magazine in his pocket.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey, who represents Mr. Rosfeld, has been trying throughout the pretrial process to portray Antwon as a criminal, arguing that he has the right to tell the jury about the evidence found on Antwon and in the car that is damaging to the teen’s reputation.

The prosecution, however, has argued that those details are irrelevant as to whether Mr. Rosfeld was justified in shooting an unarmed, fleeing teenager in the back three times.

The most recent revelation was included in a police report in a motion about discovery filed Friday by Mr. Thomassey.

In the motion, he said the state trooper’s report was written Jan. 17 but Mr. Thomassey did not obtain it from the prosecution until Tuesday — three weeks before the scheduled start of the trial. Mr. Thomassey has asked for a status conference on the issue.

According to exhibits attached to the defense motion, a man named Thomas Cole Jr. was found to have been shot during the driveby. Officers subsequently learned that Ross may have been shot as well. He wasn’t interviewed until July 19 — a month after the shooting.

Ross told detectives that he was at Fa’s Market that evening and saw a gold car pull up.

“Ross stated that he heard someone say, ‘Is that him?’ and he noticed that [Antwon] was in the front passenger seat, and [another man] was driving. He said that he knows both from playing football. Ross stated that [Antwon] was just in the store two days prior to the shooting. Ross also stated that just that day he saw [Antwon] down at the hoop court playing basketball,” the report said.

“Ross said that after hearing, ‘Is that him?’ he observed a black gun come out of the back passenger window, Ross stated a black male wearing a black hoodie over his head was holding the gun.”

The rear passenger started firing, Ross said, and he ran back inside the store, with his right leg burning.

“He said . . . he wanted to get to the basement because he felt ‘they’ were coming into the store to kill him,” the report said

Ross then told county police Detective Kevin McCue that he believed there was a beef between them because Ross is from Braddock, and the people in the car — including Antwon — were from Rankin.

“Ross stated that Rankin boys shot Braddock boys, and then Braddock Boys go [shoot] Rankin Boys. That’s the beef,” the detective wrote.

But in the interview with the state trooper in January, Ross did not repeat that information — saying only that the beef was with Antwon.

The state trooper said he called Allegheny County police to relay what he’d learned and was told that “ACPD was already aware of this information, and that ACPD had interviewed Ross extensively.”

There is a gag order in the case that prohibits the attorneys from discussing it.